USD earns ragged win over Southern Utah

USD basketball coach Bill Grier talks with Christopher Anderson during a game early this month. The Toreros defeated Southern Utah on Saturday and will open WCC play against Pepperdine this week.
— Earnie Grafton

USD basketball coach Bill Grier talks with Christopher Anderson during a game early this month. The Toreros defeated Southern Utah on Saturday and will open WCC play against Pepperdine this week.
— Earnie Grafton

USD’s 67-52 victory over Southern Utah on Saturday afternoon at Jenny Craig Pavilion was to basketball what finger painting is to art.

Or maybe it was like hurling the contents of paint cans onto a canvas. “Sloppy” was the term applied by more than one participant.

It was a win, however, and coaches view victories as parents do their own children. All are beautiful.

“It was a good win for us,” USD coach Bill Grier said after his team’s final tuneup before Saturday night’s West Coast Conference opener at Pepperdine.

Grier had concerns about a Toreros team coming off finals week, saying: “Mentally, it takes a lot out of our guys. You always worry about playing that game after finals because of that.”

USD junior guard Christopher Anderson is a bundle of energy who contributed 12 points, six assists, five steals and four rebounds for the Toreros. But Anderson said in the opening minutes that “everybody just looked dead out there.” On both sides of the floor.

There were five fouls, two turnovers and five missed shots over the game’s first two minutes, 36 seconds before someone scored.

This looked like another example of USD playing to the level of the opponent.

“Sometimes we do that,” said Anderson. “We have to just make it an effort of (being) who we are and playing hard all the time instead of dropping down to competition sometimes.”

This was not expected to be a close contest. SUU, which lost to San Diego State 76-39 on Wednesday night, had not won since the season’s opening night. The Thunderbirds came into the contest averaging 21 fewer points than they were allowing.

Nearly six minutes had elapsed before Southern Utah, located in Cedar City, had more points (7) than fouls (5).

USD did nothing to brag about itself in the opening minutes. In fact, SUU (1-8) took a 12-11 lead midway through the first half on a 3-pointer by A.J. Hess.

The Toreros went on a 13-0 run at that point, led 33-22 at the halftime and were never really challenged thereafter.

“Something we have struggled with throughout the year is going through stagnant periods where we’re not really scoring and moving the ball well,” said USD junior guard Johnny Dee, who had a game-high 16 points and seven rebounds.

“We had some good stretches, though.”

USD led by at least 20 points much of the second half and by as many as 27 points — 57-30 with 10 minutes remaining — while emptying the bench.

The final margin was 15 points because the Thunderbirds made six 3-pointers in the closing minutes, and USD had its reserves mopping up as the game wound down.

Kramer’s improved play this season has been among the bright spots for Grier, whose team now prepares for the West Coast Conference grind.

“We accomplished a lot of things we wanted to do this preseason,” said Grier, who does need another interior scorer to step forward and would like to see better rebounding. “Now that’s over and you move on to the next phase of your schedule.”

It will be a challenge.

All 10 teams in the WCC have better than .500 records, led by 16th-ranked Gonzaga (10-2), Saint Mary’s (9-0), USD (9-4), Pacific (8-2) and BYU (8-4).